Darker Inside
by Dudesgotagun
Summary: Naruto looked around the bloody battlefield. He saw two dead chuunin, a stolen scroll, and a suspect with a motive. He had to leave Konoha. Would Naruto grow up bitter and vengeful? Or can he be saved? Began before team assignments. NaruHina.
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto either.

A/N

This fanfiction is set in a bit of a darker tone than the original Naruto, and I set Naruto to begin at fifteen because that's where I wanted his maturity level. There will likely be many subtle diffrences than the original Naruto world, but that's why it's a fanfiction I guess. This is my first fanfiction, and I'm not sure right now if it will continue so if you want me to make more chapters, reviews are important, please. Pretty please. Also thanks to Nek0Nek0 and ToastedNeko for beta reading and doing most of the paragraphing.

The blond haired shinobi shifted restlessly on the familiar roof tiles of his apartment building looking toward the sky. The stars were particularly bright that night, not that the 15 year old shinobi would have realized it. Naruto was lost deep in though, contemplating the next few years to come. Having failed the final ninja exam at the Konoha academy his future was looking relatively bleak, even if he were to remain in the ninja academy for the next year, as required for a shinobi having failed the first attempt at the final exam, he couldn't see himself mastering the bunshin jutsu that was required for even the least capable shinobi. Naruto toyed with the thought of leaving Konoha; the hatred directed his way for seemingly no reason was beginning to test his resolve to become Hokage. Naruto cast the thought out of his mind, he was not the kind of ninja that turned his back on his dreams, but this bunshin jutsu didn't seem possible for him. For everyone else that graduated from his academy the jutsu was effortless, but then, so were most things. The fact that other students seemed to receive favorable treatment didn't escape Naruto, it seemed the instructors in the academy were just as favorable to his demise as the civilians in the streets, with their hateful glares, and outright avoidance of the good natured shinobi.

"Kill them"

Naruto sat up, startled. Had he been thinking out loud, was there someone mocking him, someone trying to get him imprisoned? That can't be it though, he could have sworn the voice came from within him, or had he imagined the sinister, snarling voice in general? Slightly rattled, and still contemplating the years to come, the shinobi stood up and jumped to the patio of his bleak apartment, unaware that a white haired instructor shinobi was watching him with less than honest intentions.

The Sandaime Hokage held his forehead in a weary hand for a second before deciding to look up and sign the results of the latest gennin exam. It was unreasonable to have expected different results from the young Uzumaki Naruto, bottom of his class at the Konoha ninja academy, but the realization made the fact no less disappointing.

He wondered vaguely if he made the right choice keeping the young ninja in Konoha despite the arrogant villagers, and even the more dull of the shinobi. Any action he could take to overturn the results of the exam due to a suspicion that the boy was improperly trained would be looked on as favoritism, and even as the Hokage he had to refrain himself from allowing people to make certain, assumptions. He had the village council to answer to, though he often wished that he could rule the village with the same monarchial fist that other kages' ruled their village with, but he shunned the thought. He couldn't ignore the teachings of the first, and perhaps couldn't live with the conscious of ruling over a village of terrified residents. This was just another trial on the stack that would ultimately make Uzumaki Naruto, and the Sandaime knew that one day Naruto would make an extremely competent shinobi, but he didn't know if Naruto could fight for a village that has scorned him his whole life.

The next morning Naruto found himself pacing the floor of his apartment, brainstorming a means to revoke the outcome of his academy exam. The bunshin jutsu was a lost cause, but perhaps if he could prove himself a competent shinobi then Iruka-sensei would have to pass him. After all, one jutsu doesn't make a ninja, does it?

So after waking up Naruto washed his face in his grimy sink and summed up the results of his exam. Obviously he failed the jutsu portion, and he skimmed by on his taijutsu and academic portions, but at least he passed. After pacing the floor for an hour, Naruto stopped in realization, it was so obvious he kicked himself for not thinking of it sooner. Control, that was the answer, it had always been something he could never do, and maybe that was the key to this bunshin jutsu.

Naruto decided to start at the very beginning, in the academy the instructors always had the students meditate to feel their chakra reserves, and then perform some simple jutsu to realize how it affected them. Naruto was always told to disregard the lesson, told him that for him, performing even the simplest jutsu was a risk. Naruto found himself heated and still confused at the memory, but decided to try the basic exercise.

Naruto sat down on the floor cross legged in as comfortable a position as he could, and closed his eyes to concentrate on his chakras. For a slightly unnerving lapse of time, Naruto felt nothing. He was beginning to think he wasn't cut out to be a ninja when he felt a pressure, light at first, but steadily getting stronger. Excited, Naruto started exploring the pressure, but as his excitement grew, he lost his concentration, so he lost his mental grip on the pressure. Agitated, but still excited, Naruto paced his room to calm his nerves. It took a minute, but eventually Naruto was able to compose himself and resume his position on the floor, searching for the pressure.

When he found it again, he focused on it, he could feel it all throughout his body, but on further concentration, it wasn't a constant pressure all throughout his body, he could feel the chakra flowing like blood in his veins, breaking from larger streams and coming together in points all throughout his body. The more he explored the coils of chakra; he began to realize that sometimes the feelings of the chakra varied greatly at seemingly random intervals. He would feel the typical pressure and explore the coils, but seemingly at random a large spike of pressure would pass, but it wasn't like the rest of the chakra, as opposed to the typical feeling his own chakra made, this felt like more of a burn. Naruto phased out the typical pressure, and searched for the source of these sudden spikes of pressure, and was surprised to find that the pressure was coming from the tattoo on his stomach. Naruto opened his eyes, dropping the required concentration in a puzzled recognition. He lifted his shirt and ran his fingers across the odd spiraling tattoo, he had always been curious about the origins, but now he was simply mystified. Could this be the reason the villagers hate him so much?

The chakra he felt radiating from it didn't seem natural at all, and the feeling he got from it seemed dark. He hadn't heard of a chakra ever _feeling_ a certain way before, but nothing about a second chakra seemed natural. Naruto settled back down into his state of concentration, when he could feel the now-familiar pressure he focused on a single area of chakra, he could see the coil in his minds eye, even a blue hue appeared on the chakra. Naruto focused until he could feel a spike of the burning chakra, and followed it through his body. The chakra seemed to move faster than the rest of the chakra and it took all his concentration to follow the red spike of chakra until he could feel it nearing the edge of the tattoo. Naruto hesitated momentarily, contemplating whether or not he wanted to know the repercussions of his decision, but by the time he felt another spike flow through that coil, he found himself following it into the tattoo.

Naruto could no longer feel the chakra in his body; rather, he felt the burn of the foreign chakra going _through_ him. Naruto opened his eyes, and felt his eyes widen at what he saw. Not only was he no longer in his apartment anymore, he didn't seem to be in Konoha at all. He found himself in a very large room with completely white walls, and if the room did have a ceiling, it was vaulted too high to even be seen. On one wall was what appeared to be a large prison cell with no locks or restraints of any kind, instead he saw simply a white strip of paper with the kanji symbol "seal" holding the two barred doors shut.

Naruto stood up, and upon looking down he could see that there was also a red mist carpeting the ground waving and moving in a wind Naruto couldn't feel. Naruto looked up towards the barred doors; any normal human could fit through the gaps between the thick iron bars, what could possibly be held here? Naruto slowly walked towards the bars, curious, but apprehensive, if something was being kept here it was big. When Naruto reached the bars, all he could see inside was pure darkness, and his echoing footsteps seemed to compliment his assumption this was an empty prison. All of a sudden Naruto heard a shifting, and was soon staring up at two eyes, easily as big as he was, and a very large, very sharp row of snarling teeth.

Naruto sat up on his hardwood floor in a pouring sweat; he was breathing heavily though he knew he hadn't so much as moved in at least an hour. It was dark out now, when he started meditating it was early morning, was it just a dream? But, when he meditated he could still feel the burning chakra spikes, what does this mean? A thump of feet landing in front of his window distracted him from his thoughts.

"Oh, hello Mizuke-sensei, what brings you to my apartment?"

"I know a way you can pass your gennin exam, Naruto."

Naruto could instantly feel a weight lifting off of his shoulders, if he could really make up for his failure this easily, then he had to try before the graduating class was assigned teams in a week.

"What is it Mizuke-sensei? I'll do anything!"

Mizuke smiled.

Not for the first time, Naruto found himself second guessing his decision to agree to what Mizuke-sensei was asking of him; if he failed the gennin exam, how exactly was he expected to be able to break into the office of the Sandaime Hokage and steal a scroll? Naruto waved away his doubts as foolishness, Mizuke-sensei was an academy instructor, one that had shown him a rare kindness in his more recent years in the academy, this had to be some kind of test, this was planned and organized it had to be. Naruto lost his footing on a shifting roof tile and resolved to pay more attention on the chakra that kept his footing, silently chastising himself for losing concentration on a mission that will affect his future to such a great degree.

Once Naruto arrived at the Hokages office window he was surprised to see that it was open. Naruto landed quietly on the roof next to the window, out of eyesight and waiting, listening for any noise from inside. After ten minutes with not so much as a shuffle of paper or a stifled cough Naruto peeked his head into the window, and found the honorable third Hokage asleep on his desk. After taking a second to sigh, Naruto stepped in front of the window and jumped over the Hokage to land with a thump in front of his desk. Sarutobi woke with a start and looked around his office for an intruder, until yawning and deciding to leave his office, seemingly unaware of a very nervous Naruto book henge about "Naruto the Greatest Hokage Ever" sitting on his bookshelf. Still more than slightly unnerved and shaking like Ichiraku was out of ramen, Naruto turned to the library to begin his search for the scroll.

"Okay, Mizuke mentioned something about a scroll with seals, or something, why can't I remember?" Naruto muttered silently to himself. Footsteps in the hall reminded Naruto that he shouldn't be here, so after quickly scanning the bookshelf for some kind of seal scroll, he ultimately picked up a big scroll sealed with a traditional wax seal and hastily jumped out of the window and towards the nearest rooftop.

Sarutobi frowned and took the mizu yokan from the slightly confused chunin guard and thanked him for making the run. After re-entering his office he looked towards his bookshelf and saw that it wasn't the fourths sealing scroll that was taken, but a large scroll of jonnin level jutsu, sealed with an intricate wax seal.

"Mizuke" was all the Hokage could muster to say.

Naruto found himself at the appropriated muster spot faster than he had anticipated; whether it was the adrenaline or the sounds he swore he heard chasing after him he couldn't tell. After taking the time to look around he unceremoniously plopped down cross-legged and began unsealing the scroll. A voice behind him, however, made the scroll fall from his hands to land with a thud on the floor.

"For all the expectations I would have had of a demon fox, falling for such a simple trick is almost disappointing."

In a flash Naruto was on his feet, twirled around to face the approaching offender, kunai in hand, when he dropped from his readiness stance to a relaxed partially abandoned taijutsu stance laced with udder bewilderment. A thrown kunai clashed against the one in his hand and a net linked by multiple kunai found its way around him, restraining him to the ground. All he could do was struggle uselessly in the net like some kind of helpless animal, a feeling of fear and bewilderment washing over him while he fought to free himself. After several minutes of helpless fighting he found the more he resisted the net, the tighter it got until thin, yet surprisingly durable string had tightened to a painful grip around the length of his body, forcing him to silently subdue.

"What's going on Mizuke-sensei? Is this part of the test?"

To Narutos surprise, Mizuke laughed out loud.

"So it's true, you honestly believe Konoha would let you graduate? You honestly believed we would employ a demon fox to fight for the same hidden village that imprisoned it in the human body you now masquerade in?" Mizuke sneered.

"I don't understand, why are you doing this exactly? And what do you mean demon fox?" At this point Naruto was confused and panicking, he didn't like the look in Mizukes eye, there was something sinister about it. The typically mild mannered instructor shinobi was now terrifying Naruto more than his years in the Konoha orphanage.

"So, you don't know your origins, ok, I'll tell you. I guess you deserve to know before you die."

Die? Naruto couldn't breath, the breaths he tried to take he couldn't control, they turned out quick and shallow and his heart was beating faster than he thought possible, he tried to struggle but the wire only dug in tighter, piercing flesh at exposed skin all throughout his body. He couldn't muster enough oxygen to speak, all he could do is listen, panicked, while Mizuke casually twirled a kunai from his index finger.

"You, or rather, what's left of your humanity doesn't even know your birth date I assume? That's because on that day, the kyuubi, a nine tailed demon fox attacked the village of Konoha, sending the village in a panicked frenzy."

Naruto stopped his panicked breathing, it was too noisy, he couldn't have heard what he swore he heard. What was Mizuke trying to tell him?

"Many people died, many good shinobi, including some of my closest friends. The terror only stopped when the fourth Hokage gave his life sealing the kyuubi into a new born infant. That infant is the human you currently possess right now demon."

Naruto was a swirl of emotion, mostly fear, but with a mix of a terrifying realization. That was why the village hated him, but he couldn't really be a demon could he? There was no way, he had emotions, from all his lessons at the academy, the heartlessness and terrible bloodlust of demons was always emphasized. Even if sometimes he felt bitter, he could never have wished death on anyone and he knew he had emotions, though his life would be so much easier without them.

"That's enough, Mizuke"

Naruto allowed hope to join the storm of emotions he was feeling as he heard Iruka-sensei from the treetops behind him. When Naruto looked up he could see him, his scar prominent along the bridge of his nose, and his eyes harder than Naruto had ever seen them. There was anger and determination radiating from him that allowed that much more hope to seep in.

Iruka dropped from the treetops to land in front of Naruto, and he smiled at him.

"You aren't a demon Naruto; you are simply a guardian of a terrible prisoner. You're human, and you're a good person on top of that, some people just can't see you for who you are."

Narutos eyes glossed over and he could feel a tear streaming down his cheek. He knew the kyuubi killed his instructors' parents, and if he could accept him, maybe he was human. He felt a steady stream of tears fall down his face, even as Iruka-sensei regained his steely composure and turned to Mizuke.

"You should be ashamed, you've been given a position of influence and you've used it in the most corrupt and abhorable manner possible. You'll face the Hokages' wrath for what you've done here today."

Naruto saw Iruka approach him through teary eyes, and watched as his sensei reached for one of the kunai holding the net restraining him in place when his hand stopped. Time seemed to slow down for Naruto as he saw his instructors eyes widen in shock before they took on a dull look as he fell to his knees, and then collapsed. Naruto could just see a kunai handle jetting out from the back of his instructors, of his best friends, head. And for the slightest moment, he was stunned.

Suddenly the teary vision he had was replaced by an abnormally clear vision laced with a red hue. He could feel nothing but rage, and for the first time, real bloodlust. Real, thirsty bloodlust. The restraints that previously rendered him helpless seemed to evaporate as the burning chakra feeling seemed to radiate from his pores at an intensity he couldn't have imagined possible. Soon he was on all fours, crouched down in a pouncing position almost instinctively. He could see Mizuke, and could see that he was now terrified. Naruto smiled, his enlarged canines driving home to Mizuke the mad bloodlust he felt.

Before Mizuke could have possibly realized it Naruto was on the branch standing next to him, covered in a red chakra that surrounded him and took the form of a fox. Mizukes hand clumsily grasped at a kunai, trying to control his fear. As a chuunin he had risked his life before, but this was different, this was a story, a boogeyman meant to scare children into behaving, lunging at him with every bit as much speed as the stories told.

Naruto jumped to avoid a clumsy swipe directed his way with a kunai before diving down onto Mizuke and ripping open his neck with one quick swipe of his claw, formed with fiery red chakra. Through his eyes glazed in a red hue he watched as his instructor fell to the floor, blood gaping from his exposed neck and fear radiating from him like a pathetic cry for mercy.

All of a sudden the red chakra dissipated entirely, all of Narutos previous anger replaced by shock and horror. Before him he saw an instructor that he once looked up to staring up at him with wide, fearful eyes clutching desperately at his throat, knowing he would die. He looked to the forest floor and saw the only person to ever show him compassion, to ever acknowledge him at all lying lifeless near what appeared to be the remains of a trap meant to apprehend a fleeing target. But most importantly, he saw two dead chuunin. Narutos eyes rested on the Hokages stolen scroll. He was a fugitive, he was running with a stolen scroll, and now there were two murdered instructor shinobi and one suspect with a motive. No anbu would believe the hated 'demon boy' and would likely try to kill him on sight.

He had to leave.

Naruto jumped off the tree branch, but when he landed his legs caved out under him and burned uncontrollably. He realized that the burning chakra and the speed it forced into his muscles must have made an impact on him, but he couldn't let that stop him, he had to flee. Naruto gritted his teeth and ignored the burning in his legs as he jogged over to the stolen scroll and picked it up, carrying it under his arm. He turned toward the direction of the village gates and began to run, but stopped and spared one last glance for his one and only friend, before jumping into the forest.

Naruto wasn't thinking clearly, and his vision seemed to blur more with every step he took, he could barely see where he was going, but he could tell that he was on the road, staggering towards the village gates, some ways away. Despite his bodies protests he continued walking, or was he running, swaying left and right, he didn't even notice a figure step between him and the gates until he heard a voice.

"N,naruto-kun?"

Hinata couldn't believe her eyes when she saw Naruto staggering towards the town gates. His clothes were torn up and he had various cuts and bruises on him, seemingly from running clumsily in the woods. On top of all that, he had a large, strange scroll strapped to his back sealed with an ornate looking wax seal. She knew it was dark enough that the villagers had already retired for the day, and most of the anbu on patrol seemed to be on some kind of recovery mission; she was sure that she was the first to see him. There seemed to be desperation in the way he continued on past the point of exhaustion. Hinata was worried about her source of inspiration and walked out in front of him and called his name.

"N,naruto-kun?" She asked weakly.

He staggered towards her and put his arm around her shoulders for support. Hinata stared at him mouth agape and blushed heavily before she decided that his wobbly knees implied he needed the support and put one arm around his back to steady him, still blushing. She also noticed, with disappointment, that he probably didn't even recognize her.

"Please, please help."

Hinata stared at Naruto, shocked. She had never seen Naruto so afraid, he had been exhausted to staggering in many of the training sessions that he didn't know she saw, but this was a legitimate fear she heard in his voice.

"They're going to kill me!" Naruto yelled, before going completely limp against her.

At first, Hinata couldn't move. She was so shocked she just stood there taking in what he said. She knew Naruto was treated differently, but who could honestly want to kill him? Pranks aside, he had done nothing wrong that she could think of, could this have something to do with the strange scroll? The sound of approaching footsteps made Hinata snap out of her delirium and look around for somewhere to hide. It was too dark, she couldn't see very far, and she wouldn't be able to make out any good hiding spots if the shadows were hiding them from her.

"Byakugan!" Hinata whispered, quickly calling on her blood limit, the only thing left of her family she could tolerate.

Darkness and light quickly became relative, unaffected by the new "all around" site she was searching with. She quickly spotted a small alley, almost unnoticeable in the increasing darkness, and dragged Naruto into it with her. She leaned against the alley wall and held Naruto up against her body, though he was unconscious, she couldn't help but blush at the way their bodies were pressing against each other.

The source of the footsteps became apparent when Hinata watched the patrolling anbu dart past the alley and out of sight. Using her Byakugan once more, Hinata made sure that the anbu was out of range before relaxing, and easing her control of the Byakugan until it faded away. She had no idea who was after Naruto but she didn't want to take any chances, and he seemed pretty desperate to get out of Konoha, for all she knew the anbu themselves could be chasing him!

Hinata sat against the wall, considering all the possible repercussions for her actions. Naruto was obviously in trouble, and being the object of her adoration she felt inclined to help, but what if he was fleeing the anbu? If Naruto was suspected of some kind of crime and they found out she helped him flee Konoha she would be considered a missing nin! But what was left for her here anyway? Her chronic shyness kept her from making friends at the academy, and since her mother died her father saw her as nothing but a disappointment, she thought bitterly. And while she would miss her bratty little sister, Narutos life was in danger!

In the end, there wasn't a choice to make, and she found herself activating her Byakugan again and navigating the alleyways, trying to get herself as close to the wall as possible, but far enough from the gate so that the gate guards wouldn't notice her. Hinata waited for the anbu patrol to make one more round before heading towards the town wall.

Being a wall designed to keep people out, rather than in, the wall was relatively easy to get across. It was just a simple matter of jumping over it, but with Narutos obvious fear of pursuit, she ran as quickly and far away as she could, occasionally looking back at Narutos sleeping face and smiling.

Kyuubi No Yoko smiled in her chakra prison.


	2. Chapter 2, Grief

The first thing Naruto realized when he opened his eyes, was that he was in pain, lots of pain. His muscles ached bitterly and his head felt like it could explode at any minute. The morning sun did nothing to help the pain and he cursed light and all things that create it under his breath. Worst part is he had trouble remembering why he would be in such a condition in the first place.

The second thing Naruto realized was that he wasn't alone. Despite the blatant protests of his aching muscles and head Naruto jumped up to a taijutsu stance, ignoring his head as it did that exploding thing that it promised earlier. In passing, he also noticed that he was in an unfamiliar wooded area with a stream lightly churning in the background.

Naruto in no way released from his stance when he noticed the foreign presence was his old classmate, Hinata Hyuuga, carrying a large amount of dried twigs and medium sized branches. The young Hyuuga girl immediately dropped her burden and looked down, fidgeting nervously with her fingers, tapping her index fingers together.

"N-Naruto-kun, you're awake." Hinata said, apparently wanting to make conversation, but uncertain what to say.

"Where am I? What's going on?" Naruto growled, not wanting a fight but not wanting to show it, completely oblivious to the fact the Hyuuga had taken no kind of ready position.

Naruto was surprised to see that Hinata was completely taken aback by the question, staring up at him in surprise, and continued her finger twiddling nervously like she may have done something wrong.

"I-I um, we're, w-well I don't know." Hinata admitted blushing.

"T-That is, I don't know where we are." She added quickly. "But I, um, carried you, away from Konoha. B-but just because you said you needed help, a-and you l-looked hurt and I thought you wanted to l-leave and…" Hinata stopped talking when she noticed Naruto had plopped down on the grass with his head in his hands, sobbing silently and shaking.

"I remember." Naruto said through gasps of breath. "I remember everything, I couldn't stop it, I, it's all my fault." Naruto spoke without lifting his head from his hands, and not bothering to mask the tears in his voice.

Naruto lifted his head to scream, screaming at nothing, just screaming. Screaming out of anger, out of depression and disbelief. The previous night replayed painfully in his head over and over. All he could do was scream until his voice was hoarse and his throat hurt, and then keep screaming. Naruto didn't notice that his screaming was causing his head a dangerous amount of pain; or rather he did, but didn't care enough to stop it. Narutos consciousness noted the pain with a detached sense of unimportance and continued as if his own pain didn't affect him in the least. When his vision started getting darker, he continued screaming. Only his loss of consciousness could stop his screaming, as his body lay motionless on the forest floor.

Hinata watched Narutos outburst with trembling hands. She was worried that Naruto was so upset, and hated herself for not being able to comfort him, but more than that she was worried about what could have caused such an outburst in the lighthearted boy. She had seen villagers scorn Naruto for seemingly no reason, but he just laughed it off. She had never seen him make any kind of outburst like that, not even when she was watching him when he thought he was training alone. She had seen him endure so much, something must have happened last night when she took him from Konoha to break his spirit. The thought frightened her. Hinata wanted nothing more than to lay with Naruto-kun and comfort him, but she couldn't. But the least she could do was find something to cook for when he woke up.

The Sandaime looked Mizuke in the eye with distaste as the interrogation proceeded silently. The traitor of Konoha did not have much time left, the medic nins had arrived just in time to repair the tissue in Mizuki's neck, but the wound was unique. No matter what they did they couldn't stop the bleeding entirely, but it had slowed considerably, and the interrogators assured the Hokage that they had enough time to find the facts of what happened in the night while they threw him into a neck-high full body interrogation machine, which allowed them to literally explore the inner workings of the mind. There were currently four interrogator shinobi circled around Mizuke, all of them with their hands trained on his head, eyes closed and focusing intently.

The lead interrogator for this particular interrogation, Inoichi Yamanaka, removed his hand from Mizuki's forehead and looked up at the Hokage, moments later the other interrogators followed suit.

"I've seen what happened." Inoichi stated, not a moment too soon, as Mizuki's head sagged and eyes dimmed to a lifeless hue. Sarutobi looked towards the traitor and noticed this, drawing a long puff from his wooden pipe. When Inoichi began talking he returned his attention to him.

"It's just as you thought."

Naruto was walking through the woods aimlessly, he didn't feel sad or angry, he was just walking through the forest, feeling nothing. He remembered the Hyuga was back at camp, but he felt like this was important, he didn't have a direction or destination, but this felt important. He wandered silently until he heard a pair of footsteps behind him, when he heard them he casually turned, not taking a ready stance, not worried he'd be attacked, but feeling safe. What he saw shattered his aloof air like it never existed.

"Hey Naruto." Iruka said with his hand behind his head and a big smile wrinkling the scar on his face.

"Do you want to get some ramen?"

Narutos eyes opened suddenly. The vision that once showed him his friend and mentor now showed him the underside of a forest of treetops in the late afternoon. He blinked, and felt tears stream down the side of his face. It was a dream; of course it was a dream. He saw him die; he saw his lifeless eyes staring at him, boring into his soul. The familiarity of the tears streaming down his face almost made him laugh out loud, this was his life, maybe this was all it would ever be. Maybe what he needed was revenge. Maybe if he couldn't be noticed by being Hokage, maybe he could make Konoha notice him with destruction, vengeance.

"Maybe that's all they'll ever notice. They sure noticed me; they acknowledge me still as a prisoner in a child."

There was the snarling voice again. Naruto dismissed the voice and summed his dark thoughts up as idle conjecture. It wasn't in him to kill anybody.

"You killed Mizuki didn't you?"

Hmph, I guess I did, Naruto thought bitterly.

"N-Naruto-kun." Naruto looked up as a shy and slightly withdrawn voice addressed him as if it took no small part of effort to address him. He had almost forgotten about Hinata Hyuga, the heiress to the prestigious Hyuga clan. Why was she here? She said she carried him away, but why would she leave Konoha to help him? He noticed when he looked up at her that her cheeks turned a deep rosy color and her mouth opened to talk, but her rosy shade just deepened and she just bowed her head down shyly and extended her arm towards him, holding some kind of meat that seamed to have been roasted over a spicket. Naruto sat up and grabbed the stick she held outstretched towards him, after which she immediately plopped down on a log and buried her face in her jacket, nervously twisting her fingers together in knots. Still suspicious, Naruto looked over the meat for any signs of tampering quickly while Hinata had her head buried in her jacket, so he wouldn't offend her. When he bit down, he found that the meat was juicy and savory, obviously spiced with wild herbs that may be growing in the area.

"This is delicious Hinata, arigato!" Naruto looked up at her and smiled the broadest smile he could muster in thanks, but when Hinata looked up she didn't seem to even see the smile past the tears still staining his cheeks. She looked at him with sad eyes and murmured a quite arigato in thanks. Naruto knew she had seen through his smile; sad, angry, and upset he couldn't even put on a decent facade he looked to the earth between his legs before turning his gaze to Hinata.

"Why are you here? I know you _said_ you wanted to help but why are you really here?" There was no anger, or emotion in his voice whatsoever, but he could not mask the suspicion. He had never known Hinata to be anything but loyal to Konohagakure and he couldn't believe she would risk becoming a missing nin for a demon-boy. Nonetheless, he was finding it hard to see through here emotions, the shock and hurt he saw on her face looked very real, but his face remained impassive.

"N-Naruto-kun, I-I was j-j-just trying t-to help I s-s-swear!" Any other time he may have found her nervous stammering cute, but he couldn't believe her. Suddenly a thought occurred to him, the only thing that could explain why she would help him, and not kill him. Visibly relaxing, Naruto replaced his suspicious accusing appraisal on Hinata to a look of sad comprehension.

"You don't know what I am, do you Hinata?" Naruto asked quietly, suddenly dropping his head, unable to even look at a decent, caring person after learning what he was.

"G-gomen, Naruto-kun, what do you mean?" Hinata shifted nervously, feeling foolish after she realized she had dropped everything for someone she barely knew.

"Go home, Hinata." Naruto said sadly, looking up long enough to see the Hyuga's eyes distort in confusion and disappointment.

"Tell them I captured you, dragged you away. Tell them anything they need to hear they'll believe you, and I don't mind. My fate was sealed the day I was born." Naruto said the last sentence dejectedly, and laid his back down on the ground.

"Naruto-kun" Hinata stated firmly. Naruto noticed with mild surprise that her stutter was gone, as was her uncertain manner.

"I do not plan to leave you here alone, and I certainly don't plan to lie to get you in more trouble." Hinata stated resolutely. Naruto stood up slowly, noticing she had already gotten up and stood closer to him than she had before. He looked her in the eye, and knew she was not going to back down without seeing for herself. He felt the kyuubi inside him stirring with excitement.

"I'll show you then." Hinata looked at him confused, but still resolute. Naruto had no doubt in his mind when he showed her the monster he is she would run away and not look back.

He felt the stinging dark chakra start to circulate in his veins releasing from the seal, slowly at first, then steadily more quickly. Naruto gritted his teeth as he felt the sting of the chakra exiting his skin, taking the form of a fox with a single red tail. His vision got clear, though tinged with a light red haze, and all of his senses skyrocketed. He could smell the earthy smell of the forest and the musty smell of the nearby animals; he could taste the smoky remnants of the fires ash floating in the air, but though he knew it was windy, he could feel nothing, the red chakra wrapping him like the thickest armor.

Hinata looked at him in obvious surprise, but when her surprise faded, she looked perfectly calm. She regarded him seriously, looking him up and down until her eyes rested on his red, slitted eyes, and to Narutos infinite surprise, she smiled.

"I'm still not leaving, Naruto-kun." Still able to hold back her stutter, her voice was almost teasing. Now Naruto could let his anger show, he looked at her through narrow, incredulous eyes and screamed.

"What are you talking about you're not leaving? Look at me, I'm a monster!" Despite his angry admission, tears were gathering quickly at the corners of his eyes and sliding their way down his cheeks.

"You shouldn't be smiling you should be scared! Don't you know a monster when you see one?" Naruto was screaming as loud as he could now, eyes closed and tears flowing freely. He was caught completely off guard when he felt a pair of arms wrap around him, pinning his arms to his sides and pulling a soft body into his. The red chakra slowly dissipated and Naruto looked down to see Hinata's hair, flowing around her shoulders and down to mid-back, her face pressed tightly into his chest.

"I like to think I'd know a monster if I saw one..." She looked up at him, blushing deeply with tears welling in the corner of her eyes.

"But I don't see any here." She finished, smiling up at him. Looking down at her, Naruto was still taken aback, but after a moment, he freed his arms from hers and wrapped them around her shoulders, crying gently into her hair.

The interrogation had taken longer than the Sandaime Hokage had expected, and he found himself frustrated at the amount of effort it was taking him to find a search party to look for the blonde haired teen to bring him back. It seemed most shinobi weren't willing to look for the jinchuuriki and busied themselves with something else to excuse themselves from the voluntary search party. Sarutobi was considering putting in a mission request with himself as the client when Hiashi Hyuga burst in rudely through the door looking livid. Two chuunin guards were at his heels, failing in their attempt to maintain the Hokage's standards for meeting and privacy. Sarutobi waved the guards away, interested to see what had the Hyuga clan head so livid.

"Have you sent my daughter on any missions, or otherwise allowed her to leave Konoha for any reason?" Sarutobi snapped without bothering with the formal greetings, acting way beyond what was typically acceptable.

"No, she has yet to even be assigned a team." Sarutobi replied, "But Hiashi you need to address me with..." before the sentence was even complete the Hyuga had stormed out purposefully.

"Proper respect." Sarutobi finished futilely with a frown.

After they had broken apart, to Hinata's grudging dismay, Naruto explained to Hinata what Mizuke had told him. It felt good to talk about what happened not so long ago, and Hinata was a good listener. For whatever reason Naruto felt like she genuinely cared for him, when he told her Mizuki put him up to stealing a scroll she frowned angrily, when he told her Mizuki attacked him and told her what he said Hinata's delicate fists began to shake with her anger, but when he told her how Iruka showed up she visibly calmed, and looked happy their sensei had helped. When it came time for Naruto to tell her about Iruka's death he hesitated.

"N-Naruto, what happened, h-he was reaching t-to help you, did he take Mizuki back to the Hokage?" She asked, worry in her eyes. She knew that could not have happened, that wouldn't explain the exhausted state she found Naruto in.

"No Hinata, Iruka-sensei, he was trusting and, well, he never thought an old friend would turn on him like he did." Naruto started, looking at the ground fidgeting, but when he looked up, he found it hard to continue. Hinata was already crying in her sleeve, she already knew what Naruto was going to say, but Naruto knew he had to say it.

"Mizuke killed Iruka. When I saw Iruka die I lost control of myself, I turned into the mon, er, thing I showed you, and I k-k-killed him." Naruto had never stuttered in his life, but it took all of his effort to get the last word out. Hinata was sobbing hard into her jacket now, Naruto wanted to comfort her, but he was why she was crying. If Iruka hadn't been trying to help him he'd be alive, he didn't deserve to comfort her, and though he was sure she hated him right now he looked back to the ground, and continued his story.

"When I noticed there were no witnesses to what Mizuki did, I knew no one would ever believe the demon-boy, everyone would be happy to have an excuse to be rid of me. So I picked up the scroll, and ran. I know I shouldn't have stolen the scroll anyway, but if I'm going to survive I need whatever help I can get." Naruto looked at the scroll guiltily, but when he thought about the way the town had treated him his guilty look contorted to anger. Good riddance, I don't need that town, Naruto thought angrily, and though he would deny it, a little sadly too.

When Naruto looked up, Hinata had scooted near him, and was looking at him with tears in her eyes, whatever bitterness Naruto was feeling melted away as he looked at her. Though he knew he couldn't deserve it, Naruto wrapped his arms around her in a hug, and to his surprise she hugged him back fiercely. Naruto yawned, and Hinata mimicked the motion, Naruto was tired, they both were, but neither were ready to let go just yet.

Hiashi Hyuga stormed around the Hyuga compound, Byakugan active, searching in every direction for any sign of his daughter, his disappointment. He stormed back into his own manor and stopped when he saw Neji in the hallway approaching him.

"Well?" Hiashi Hyuga demanded.

"I haven't seen her Hiashi-sama" Neji replied "But have you so quickly dismissed the fact that she may be training? She is very aware of her weakness, maybe she has finally decided to do something about it." Neji stated.

Hiashi visibly calmed but the anger did not fade from his face. "She has been gone all day." Hiashi narrowed his eyes ay Neji. Neji shrugged, a full day of training was obviously normal to him. After thinking about it, Hiashi resume his reserved countenance he used as a mask.

"If she is not back by morning, prepare yourself to be placed on a search party." Hiashi stated. Neji simply nodded.

When Hinata woke, she immediately noticed that when they both fell asleep, they hadn't yet been ready to stop hugging. They slept facing each other, her arm draped around his side and his bicep resting comfortably on her neck, his elbow bent his forearm behind her head, with his hand in her hair, and he was smiling. She squealed quietly and quickly jumped up and away, turning away from him to hide her beet-red blush with her hands fiddling nervously with her hair. Luckily Naruto just groaned and frowned, turning around and curling into himself to fall back asleep. When she turned back to look at him, she was still blushing furiously, twiddling her fingers together so quickly her fingers seemed to tie themselves in knots into each other. She smiled as she thought of the way he felt against her, and her blush deepened even further. Though she was happy she got to fall asleep like that, she also berated herself for jumping away from him. Would it be so bad if he found out how she felt about him? Couldn't she have just stayed there a little longer, and maybe pretended like she was sleeping?

Hinata shook herself out of her thoughts when she realized it was morning. It was early, very early and it was still dark. Hinata knew they were pushing their luck remaining here, though she had run far from Konoha they were sure to send a search team eventually. Hinata reached down to shake Naruto awake, but before she could reach him she heard him talking in his sleep.

"Sakura-chaaaan" Naruto mumbled lazily, shifting slightly and replacing his smile. Hinata straightened out and found her face red with anger, instead of gently shaking him awake she gave him a 'light' kick in the stomach. Naruto woke up, and when Hinata realized what she had done she began apologizing profusely, and told him she 'accidently' walked into him. Naruto didn't seem bothered though and gave her a big smile, before looking around and realizing how early it was.

"We better get going, Naruto told her, still smiling." Hinata looked at him, confused as to why he wasn't more worried.

"H-hai N-Naruto-kun. B-but why aren't y-you mad, I-I would u-understand if you w-were." Hinata stuttered, no longer able to control her habit of stuttering around him. Her confusion only deepened when his grin widened and it looked like he had to suppress, a giggle?

"Gomen Hinata, but I was only playing when I said Sakura..." Hinata couldn't have been more confused, and she noticed it was Narutos turn to blush.

"And I woke up before you." Naruto smiled, holding the back of his head with both hands and blushing lightly.

Hinata stared at him, wide-eyed and mouth agape, and feigned playful annoyance, but when she turned around to make sure the fire had completely died down, she was smiling brightly.


End file.
